PunchOut! The Rise of Little Mac
by FreakinSweet87
Summary: When retired boxing trainer Doc Louise and an up-and-coming rookie named Mac both find themselves down and out, they realize the only way out of their situation is through each other’s skills in the ring.
1. Chapter 1

Punch-Out!! The Rise of Little Mac

I know boxing like the back of my hand. I know how to throw a punch, take a punch, I know it all. Well, at least I used to. Not to say I couldn't handle myself in the ring nowadays, but the 50's were different times. I was one of the great African American heavyweight champions of my time… but age makes fools of us all. Ah, I seem to have gotten ahead of myself and you don't even know who I am. The name's Jerome Louis, better known as Doc Louis. Of course those closest to me just call me "Doc".

You may be wondering what's up with all this reminiscing. Well boxing has always been close to my heart, but after my retirement it all seemed to fade away. The cheering of the crowds and the feeling of admiration from the fans all seemed to end that day. Maybe that's why I jumped at the opportunity to hear it one more time. I thought I'd never be able to relive those glory days again because I thought nobody remembered them… until he showed up.

Part 1: Train me, Doc!

Back in the 80's I was working part-time time as a trainer to make ends meet at this old gym I fixed up in the Bronx. Times were tough back then. People could barely afford food on their tables so I don't know why I thought anyone would care about training to become a boxer. But I did manage to get a few rookies under my belt who paid up front which kept my bills paid for a while. Unfortunately none of them stuck with the program and called it quits before they even got a chance to learn the basics.

Things looked pretty hopeless. After a few weeks without any customers I was finally ready to close up shop permanently. I left the gym and padlocked the door, keeping the key in my pocket. I looked upon the outside of the old building, shook my head and sighed, "I need a drink". I stared down at the last few dollars in my hand and figured things couldn't get any worse so I started my long walk away from the gym and over to the local bar.

When I arrived at the bar everyone looked as strapped for cash as I was. I suppose they were all there to drink away their misery as well. I ordered a single beer which was all I could afford. There was sports on the small, grainy, black & white TV, and in the corner was a tiny boxing ring, probably the last thing I wanted to see. People would place bets on no-named fighters and the winner would get $200. It was a nightly thing, but I never bothered to place any bets, how could I with no cash to start with? I tried my best to ignore the upcoming fight and stared into my drink.

A man with a microphone and a small index card started to announce the next fighters. "Gentlemen," he said, seeing as how no ladies were ever present. "We've got two new boxers who are ready to prove their worth for your viewing pleasure." I turned my head to the ring as he continued. "In the red corner, weighing in at 255 lbs, give it up for Nathan "Powerhouse" Powers!!" A muscular looking man climbed into the ring and threw his arms up as if he'd already won. The crowd began to clap and holler. He had an arrogant smirk on his face as if he were the best. I couldn't stand folks like that.

"Now in the blue corner, weighing in at 98 lbs, and at only 17 he's our youngest fighter to date, let's hear it for Baby Mac!!" I was surprised to see a young boy climb into the ring. He was in good shape for his age but didn't look like he could stand up against the opponent they pitted against him. I decided to watch the fight after seeing the kid. He had a hopeful look in his eyes, a determination I hadn't seen in years. I moved closer to the ring as others crowded around to see if the underdog would pull off a win.

The bell rang and the two stood face to face. Powers was the first to throw a punch, going for a quick left jab. To everyone's surprise Mac quickly moved aside, dodging the punch and responding with his own left jab and quick right uppercut to Powers' jaw. Mac's movements were smooth as if he'd been a professional his whole life. He read every punch as if he'd known about it in advance. The fight went on for several minutes without Powers getting a single hit until the bell rang and ended the round. If Mac didn't knock him out he'd certainly win by decision if he kept this up.

As the second round started nobody could look away from the ring. Mac continued racking up hits with Powers unable to read the oncoming attacks. Unfortunately for Mac, Powers managed to determine one punch before it was thrown. He moved aside and Mac stumbled forward as Powers lowered his fist, gearing up for an uppercut. Before Mac was able to recoup from his mistake, Powers gave everything he had into one single punch that connected directly into Mac's jaw. The force of the uppercut sent Mac into a daze, leaving him against the ropes until he finally fell.

The ref began to count down as Mac struggled to get up. I even found myself cheering him on with the other bar patrons. Mac grabbed the roped with his gloves but by the time he managed to plant one foot on the ground the countdown reached zero. Just like that, it was over. Mac pulled himself up as Powers bragged to the crowd. I'd never seen anyone look so disappointed in themselves as Mac did that day. I said under my breath, "don't let it get to ya, son".

I went back to the bar to finally finish the drink I had started and head home for the night. I got ready to leave when I looked to my side only to see Mac sitting on the stool next to me. His jaw was in bad shape and he let out a sigh. The bartender asked him, "anything I can get for ya, Mac?" The kid just stared at the bar and said, "ice…". A moment passed and I couldn't decide if I should say anything to him. He looked like he had the weight of the world on his shoulders. I thought I'd at least make an effort. "Hell of a fight, kid." He looked at me for a second, then back at the bar. "Yeah…." I continued, "y'know for someone your age you sure got some moves". He stared silently without saying a word. I could see trying to make him feel better was out of the question.

As the bartender handed Mac ice for his jaw I tried one more time to cheer him up. "They say boxing is fighting backed by technique… I think you proved--" I was abruptly cut off by the sound of Mac slamming his fists down in the bar. He gritted his teeth and closed his eyes. "Damn it! That fight meant everything!"

"Well, I'm sure there'll be other fights, son."

Mac looked at me sternly, "I don't care about the match, I needed that $200!"

"I-I'm sorry."

"Now what am I going to do? I… have nowhere to live now."

It was painfully clear now that the money was for his rent. I knew that feeling too well. "Well, son" I said, "I can relate to your money trouble".

"Look I don't want any sympathy, it was my fault I lost the fight because I didn't stay focused." I looked back at him and stood up out of my seat. "Now listen here, Mac!" I said. "I've boxed for twenty long years of my life and I haven't seen focus like yours since I retired. That hit was a fluke, we both know that." The kid looked stunned, maybe because I yelled or maybe he didn't believe I used to be a boxer.

I sat back down and neither of us said anything for a moment. Mac finally asked, "why do you care so much anyway?"

"Because I was like you once. I remember how that first defeat felt.

"Yeah… This wasn't exactly my first defeat. In fact I've been trying to find a trainer for a while now but I keep getting turned down."

That last statement shocked me. Why would anyone turn the kid down, because of his age? Mac went on, "I've seen about 200 trainers now and none of them wanted to accept me," Right then and there it clicked in my head. I always believed that everything happened for a reason, but for this kid to be turned down by 200 trainers only to meet up with me in a run-down bar… That's a coincidence if I've ever heard one.

I stood up and got ready to leave but continued talking to Mac as I did. "Listen, Mac. I'll be willing to teach you everything I know if you're willing to give it everything you've got." Mac looked a little puzzled, "sure, but…".

"But what?"

"I've still got nowhere to go right now…"

I put my hand on his shoulder. "You let me worry about that. It's like I said, son, I'm in the same position you are right now. In fact I just closed up my gym permanently because I hadn't had anybody come in for some time."

"S-so you're an ACTUAL boxing trainer?"

"That's right." I smiled. "Name's Jerome Louis."

"Jerome… Louis. Wait! Former heavyweight champion Jerome Louis?"

My jaw dropped. "You remember me?"

"Of course! You were one of the greatest fighters of the 50's! The only boxer to ever last 3 rounds with Mr. Sandman!" It was unbelievable. The kid really knew who I was. It was like every memory of my past came flooding back in an instant.

As Mac and I left the bar the frosty New York winds picked up. We walked along as Mac asked, "so where do we start?" I chuckled. "You let me worry about that. We continued until we ended up back at my gym. I took the key out of my pocket and unlocked the door, happy to know I didn't have to abandon the place. I looked at Mac as I opened the door to the gym. When he walked in his eyes lit up at the sight of it. The equipment, the indoor ring I had installed. He knew he would finally get the training he needed.

I knew if I trained this kid right we'd be able to make some money winning fights. I saw this as my golden opportunity to not only relive my glory days but maybe make a new champ out of him too. He certainly had potential in the ring. After checking out all of the equipment, Mac turned to me and said the one thing that stayed with me for years, "make me the best, Mr. Louis". I smiled back at him, folded my arms and said, "call me Doc."

**Author's Note: I'm baaaack! Now before anyone who's subscribed to me gets on my case about starting a new story and not finishing Super Mario Bros. Origins let me explain myself. There are many reasons as to why I haven't written another part to it yet. A lot things have been going on in my personal life and after some time I ended up forgetting that I even started it. I've also had some serious creativity blockage with the Mario series so I took a little break from it. Please be patient and I promise I'll finish it!**

**Now regarding this new story I have so many reasons why I started a story based on Punch-Out!! I've been a fan of the series since I was a kid, and this site barely seems to have any stories based in this universe. Most of all this story is my own little commemoration to celebrate the release of the new entry on the Wii. I plan on writing new parts every few days or maybe less and I'm tying to keep the story as true to the original (which is rather obscure to begin with) as possible. I hope I've succeeded in breathing some new life to this legendary franchise and I'm looking forward to continuing this story in the future. Thanks for reading, guys!**


	2. Chapter 2

Part 2: Getting Started

The very next day things were already looking up. I had managed to talk my sweet old Granny Louis into letting Mac and I stay with her, just until we made enough money to get on our feet. I could always count on Granny for help. The only problem with living under her roof was that she limited the amount of chocolate bars I was allowed to eat. Y'see, I'm what they call a "Certified Chocoholic", a connoisseur if you will. Quite frankly I just plain love chocolate, which explained why I wasn't in peak physical condition.

Mac was as eager to learn as I was to teach. It had been so long and I hoped I hadn't forgotten my old training regiment. Thankfully once we got to the gym and started, it all came back to me. But before any real training started I wanted to make things official. "Hey, son!" I yelled over to Mac who had already begun lifting the barbells. "You mind comin' over here for a minute?"

"Sure thing, Doc." He set the weights down and walked over to the locker I was standing next to. I sighed, "Mac, there's something I'd like to give you". He looked surprised. I opened the locker and pulled out a pair of green boxing trunks a black tank top and a pair of green boxing gloves. "What's all this?" Mac asked. I smiled and said, "this was my old uniform I used to wear in the ring".

"Wow… I remember from all the old footage and pictures. It's weird seeing everything in color."

"Well you'll be seeing a lot more of it because it's yours now, Mac."

"Y-you're giving me your old boxing uniform?" He looked down as I handed it over to him. "Doc… I… But why?"

"This old thing got me through a lot of matches without getting so much as a tear in the fabric or rip in the gloves. I wanted you to have some of the luck it's given me over the years."

Mac hung his head down holding the uniform, still folded. It looked as though he'd never gotten a gift in his life. "T-thank you so much, Doc." Mac's voice trembled a little. He put out his hand to shake mine and I happily obliged. Then he was off to change. I leaned on the ropes of the ring waiting for Mac to come out of the locker room. When he walked out it was like looking into a mirror from the past. "Lookin' good, son!" I yelled over to him. "How's it fit?"

"Not bad. It's a bit big, though."

"Well you gotta remember I was never a featherweight like you. I switched outfits once I outgrew that one but I knew it was a good idea to hang onto it."

"You called it, Doc."

Now that everything else was out of the way it was time to begin training. I had Mac go back to the weights he was lifting before. I didn't want to push him too hard at first, but we needed to work on bulking him up. "Listen up, Mac," I said. "You're quick on your feet but your weight is one of the factors that prevents you from being able to handle a punch."

"R-right," Mac responded while alternating between the two 20 lb weights in each hand, struggling to speak a bit. As Mac went on, so did my encouragement. "Work em, Mac. Work through the pain!" His forehead began to sweat but he kept on going. After about 15 minutes I told him he could rest. Mac quickly dropped the weights and his arms hung down. "Not too bad, Mac baby." I said. "Probably feels like you were pushing a truck uphill for two hours, doesn't it?"

"That's actually a pretty accurate way of describing it."

"Don't worry, it'll get easier."

The day turned to night more quickly than usual. I'd forgotten how easy it was to lose track of time while training. By the time the sun set we had covered nearly everything, and the boy took to it all like it was second nature. Jumping rope, sparring, sit-ups, push-ups. I thought to myself, this might really work. The only way we'd know for sure was to have Mac go against a real opponent. Fortunately for Mac, who was now exhausted from a hard day's work, that had to wait until tomorrow.

Back at Granny's house, we all say down to the nice meal she had waiting for us. I knew Mac had to be sore from head to toe, but that didn't keep him from being able to hold a fork. The poor kid must not have been eating very well when he was alone since he shoveled a turkey leg, mashed potatoes and green beans into his mouth all at once. "Chew, baby!" Granny said to Mac. He swallowed his mouthful, "sorry Mrs. Louis. I haven't had a meal like this in a while". Granny looked happy to see her cooking was so appreciated but still had to be the authority. "Well don't go choking down your food. Wouldn't want you to go through all that training only to die by turkey leg." Mac laughed, "you're right".

After dinner Granny went inside to watch her usual late-night television, while Mac and I sat at the table for a bit. "So where were you living before this, Mac?"

"I had an apartment a couple of blocks from here. Nothing special."

"I don't mean to pry, it just seems odd to see a kid your age on his own already. Don't you think your par--." Mac began to speak over me. "Oh! That reminds me I need to get my stuff out of there before they change the locks." I figured his folks were a sensitive subject so I didn't press the issue and went along with him. "We can stop by early tomorrow morning on our way out. What do you have to get, son?"

"Just some clothes and things. Also my old bike."

"A bike, huh? Tell you what, let's skip the gym altogether tomorrow and get some fresh air. I have somewhere I need to take you anyway."

"Sounds good!" Mac said, yawning. "Guess we'd better head in for the night, Doc."

Mac walked upstairs while I let Granny know we were heading to bed. I yelled into the TV room, "night, Granny. We're heading in for the night, got an early day tomorrow!" Granny yelled back, "you kids hungry?"

"No, Granny we already ate, remember? We're heading to bed."

"Alright then, have a good night." And with that I headed upstairs and prepared for the day ahead. Although it was Mac who would need to be prepared.

Dawn broke and surprisingly Mac was already up and ready by the time I woke up. I quickly threw myself together so we could be out the door. "Where did you say we were going today, Doc?" Mac asked as we left for his apartment. "I got a surprise for you, Mac baby."

"You seem to like surprises."

"That's because the world doesn't have enough good ones."

When we got to Mac's apartment I waited outside for him to come down with his things. I offered to help but he insisted he'd only be a minute. Sure enough he came out a moment later holding a small bag and driving his bike down the steps. "I'm sorry about you losing this place, Mac." He scoffed, "don't be. Everything I own is right here. I don't need four walls to hold all of this". It broke my heart to hear that everything was in one bag. He wasn't in the same position I was, his was much worse.

"Well, time for some training!" I said happily. Mac raised an eyebrow, "I thought you said we were skipping the gym today, Doc?"

"Oh we are skipping the gym. Your bike is gonna train you until we get where we're going."

"Riding a bike doesn't sound very strenuous."

"Don't worry, you're not the one who's gonna be riding it."

I hopped on the bike and grabbed Mac's bag, putting it on the handlebars. Without warning I began peddling and yelled back, "I wanna see if you can keep up!" Mac quickly got the idea and followed closely behind me. He was surprisingly fast and kept up very well. I rode alongside the waters of New York and gazed at the Statue of Liberty as we continued on. Mac, however, kept right on running, not paying much attention to anything else and focusing on his training.

We kept on going until we finally reached our destination. Mac breathed heavily and looked up at the tall building where we had stopped. "W-what is this, Doc?"

"Follow me, son." We went inside and I had Mac sit down in the waiting room while I went further inside. I didn't tell him where we were so he seemed a little on edge. About ten minutes later I came back out holding a piece of paper which I immediately handed over to him. He looked down at the paper as I said, "congratulations, Mac. You're now an official boxer in the state of New York".

"What? You mean this is a…"

"That's right. Your own boxing license. I took the liberty of phoning ahead to set everything up. You're all set now, son."

Mac jumped up and quickly shook my hand. I pulled him close and patted him on the back. "You won't regret this, Doc!" The look on his face was all the thanks I needed. "I promise you I'm going to be the greatest there ever was. I'm not going to let you down, Doc. I swear it"

"I don't want any promises, Mac. I know you have what it takes." I folded my arms. "Now your first real match is in exactly one week. We're going to get you in peak condition by this time next week, got it?" Mac just gave me a thumbs up and grinned.

With Mac having his boxing license, everything had became official in an instant. I had a real student and he finally had his own personal trainer. I had every intention on training the boy the way I remember training. It worked for me and I knew it'd work for him too. We had no idea who his first opponent would be, but I decided to make sure he was ready for anything. That day marked the beginning of Mac's career into the Minors.

**Author's Note: Sorry for taking so long to finish this part, guys! I had begun working on it right after the first part but didn't have a way of ending it. In fact I was a bit disappointed with the way I ended it anyway. I really wanted to get into Mac's first fight in this part but it just didn't seem to happen, so to prevent this part from being overly long I decided to dedicate the entire 3rd part to that fight. For fans of the series, you probably know what's coming. You're also probably wondering how an entire "chapter" would work for this particular boxer... Truthfull so am I... Either way, part 3 will be coming soon. Will Mac win or lose? If you really need to ask then you've never played Punch-Out!! before. Peace out!**


End file.
